Visual art in the neurologic career of Jean-Martin Charcot
C. G. Goetz
Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Ill.
Jean-Martin Charcot, the world's first chaired professor of neurology,
incorporated visual art into his daily practice of neurology. Art served as
scientific documentation and was a pivotal tool in the development and
dissemination of Charcot's clinicoanatomic method. Although Charcot drew
extensively in clinical and laboratory studies, very few of these visual
documents have ever been published or are currently available for public
study. Charcot was central to the incorporation of medical photographs into
the study of neurologic disease and relied heavily on visual material in
his capacity as an international teacher. Art also misguided Charcot's
career when he relied heavily on artwork in his attempt to convince critics
that disorders seen at the Salpetriere Hospital, Paris, France, were
independent of his suggestive influence.
